Improvement in refrigerator



G. A. BANT'A.

Refrigerator.

Patenie'd Jan. 1, 1867.

Witnesses Inventor AM, PHOTO-LITHQCQNX. (OSBURNE'S PROCESS) UN TED STA ES GEORGE A. BANTAQOF' NEW YORK, Nay.

IMPROVEMENT iN REFRIGERATOR.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 60,665, dated January 1 ,1867. f

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. BANTA, of the city and State of New York, have in vented, made, and applied to use a-certain new and useful Improvement in Refrigerators; and Ijdo hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description'of my said invention, reference, being had to the annexed drawing, making part of this specification, wherein Figure l is a vertical section of the said refrigerator transversely. Fig. 2 is a vertical section at right angles to Fig. l, andFig. 3 is a section of the water-cooler detached.

' Similar marks of reference denote the same parts.

Refrigerators have heretofore been made with wooden and metal lined ice-boxes,-and slate has been employed as a lining for the refrigerator-case.

in all the refrigerators heretofore constructed the box holding the ice and forming a separate chamber in the refrigerator is liable to become foul from the accumulation of dirt and straw, which so often adheres to the ice, and in the wooden ice-boxes the water is absorbed, and the wood becomes saturated and this is often the case in metal-lined ice-boxes, because that metal is often destroyed by the action of the moisture, or perforated by the ice-picks used in breaking the ice.

The nature of my said invention consists in an ice-box for a circulating refrigerator formed with slate sides or bottom, or both, so that the same may be kept clean much more easily, and not be liable to corrosion by the moisture or vapors, or to injury by the ice-pick, and I arrange the air-passages so that the air shall circulate through the refrigerator and pass away, or simply rotate around in the refrigerator and I make use of the water passing off from the melting ice to cool a barrel or other vessel placed within the refrigerator containing beer or other liquid.

In the drawing, a is the bottom b, the sides; 0, the back, and d the door or doors of the refrigerator, formed in any usual or desired manner, and lined with metal or other material, and either filled with a non-conducting material between the exterior and interior casing, or having air spaces in any usual e is the ice-box formed with slate front and back 1 2, and sides 3 4. fis the cover for the ice-box, and g is the cover forthe refrigerator. his a grating or movable slats upon which the ice rests. 'i is the slate bottom for the refrigerator conveying the water melting from theice to the trough 7c, whence a pipe, l, carries the water to a pan, m, in the bottom of which are holes that cause the cold water to flow over a barrel containing beer or other liquid placed below said row of holes. This cold water trickling over the barrel n cools its contents much more effectually than would he the case were the cask only exposed to'the cooling action of theair in the refrigerator.

The ice, as it melts, passes away in the form of water at a low temperature, and, in running over the vessel 12, the water is made warmer by the heat absorbed, and at the same time the refrigerator is cooled by the extent of moist surface of said vessel exposed to the air within the refrigerator thereby the cooling power of the e is all availed of, the water passing out of the refrigerator at nearly the same temperature as the air that is within the refrigerator, and the contents of the vessel n are equally cooled.

The water is received into a water-tight drawer, 0, which slides into the base of the refrigerator, and is much more convenient for the reception of the water than the separate pans heretofore usually employed.

10 is a water-cooler formed of slates set into the refrigerator adjoining the ice-box, and cemented to place, so as to be water-tight.

The mode of constructing this cooler is more clearly shown in Fig. 3, wherein the slate lining s is set into a frame, and the exterior of the slates is covered with pasteboard or straw-board cemented on by india-rubber or equivalent water-proof cement. From this cooler 19 a pipe, 5, passes to the faucet 6. I

prefer that the said pipe 5 should be coiled beneath the grating h. This slate water-cooler can be made much more conveniently, and is more durable and cleanly than the watercoolers heretofore employed. The pipe 5, being below the rack or grating, is kept cool by the circulation of air and by the dripping water, and the ice is not melted as it would be by direct contact with the pipe.

The warmer air in the front part of the refrigerator ascends through the space 7, and then passes down in the space 8 between the division 9 and the front of the ice-box into the ice-chamber across below the ice where any air so that it will pass out of the refrigerator for ventilation or otherwise, a swinging valve, 13, is moved to cover up the opening 11, and uncover an opening, 14, through the main cover.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In an ice-box for a refrigerator lined with slate, in combination wiLh air-passages surrounding said ice-box, through which air circulates to and from the refrigerator, and is cooled by contact with the exterior of such slate ice-box, substantially as specified.

2. In a refrigerator, the perforated trough m: receiving the water that comes from the ice-box, and delivering it through a series of small holes, so as to flow over the outside of a barrel or other vessel for cooling its liquid contents, as set forth.

3. A receptacle for water in a refrigerator formed of slates in the manner specified, so that the water shall be cooled by the air circulating in contact with its exterior surface, as set forth.

4. The ascending air-passage 7 and descending passage 8, in combination with the ascending air-passages 10 and descending passage 12, whereby the air is caused to travel around the ice-box in passing to and from the chamber of the refrigerator, as set forth.

5. The valve 13, in combination with the air-passages 11 and 14, whereby said valve can be employed for closing the passage 11 for ventilating the refrigerator, or opening it for efiecting a circulation of the air, as set forth.

Dated this 19th day of April, A. D. 1866.

GEORGE A. BANTA.

Witnesses 7 GEO. D. WALKER, CHAS. H. SMITH. 

